Cold Heart, Cold Eyes
by Soorim
Summary: Tired of stereyotyped fanfiction that looks at Seto's past but fails to explain anything? When tragedy strikes... for some the pain is too near and for others... everything is numb. No pairings.


Cold Heart

By MaroonSaro

Disclaimer: This is not a romance, it is my attempt at an non-stereotyped look at Seto Kaiba. I am not the owner of Yu-gi-oh.

( On with the story) Ch 1 Frozen

**Cold.**

Everyone says I'm cold, that I'm bitter and unemotional. I wasn't always this way...

Cold is an emotion.

Cough, cough...

" Mokie, are you okay? " Seto's infamous sapphire eyes were dripping worry as he knelt over his little brother.

Mokuba smiled weakly- " I guess so... I just...don't feel so well, I guess." Mokuba trailed off, afraid to say what he had really been thinking. I just miss Mom and Dad.

Seto stood up and turned away, a distant look on his face, a slight sorrow written in his eyes. We've been at this orphanage for a month...Mokuba isn't delicate, but losing Mom and Dad hit him hard... This disease can't be cured...

Seto had been plagued with persistent bouts of contemplation ever since losing his parents, but Seto had always done a lot thinking. Only then his father had been around to make him laugh- but he wouldn't think of Dad! Sent to a "special" school for "talented" children, Seto had plenty of time to think as he endured the hour long bus ride home each day, on a bus full of icy children who ignored a shabbily dressed child who outdid consistently outperformed them on tests. Right now none of them would have recognized him, an icy look freezing his features into a mask of indifference and spite, so different from the boy who had spent his time in the library enjoying fantasy novels and entertaining those few fallen from grace who would talk with him.

Mokuba coughed, reminding Seto that there was still something to smile for. " Seto, why don't you go get a cough chess board? I'm sure you must be bored...We can play your game ... why don't you show me how to beat the wizard guy? "

On Seto's last birthday, Seto's father had gotten him a chess simulation handheld game. The little game had been lying in the back of the toy store, covered with stickers depicting the fall of the toy's price from twenty dollars to seventeen dollars to fifteen dollars( Sale! ) all the way down to four fifty after the game had sat around for nearly two years and been glanced at twice. Littered with dust, Seto's father had bought it, presenting it with relish to Seto, who was very enthusiastic about having something to do on the bus rides. Nearly a year later, lots of trial and error, as well as an old chess book found in a thrift shop, Seto was a near master. Aside from the hours on the bus, the money he brought in from chess competitions and betting made his mothers eyes light up. Remembering the way she had looked at him sadly- " Seto..., you don't need to do this...! Oh, Seto...!"-remembering her hugs, Seto felt a twinge of sadness worm its way into the corner of his spirit as he trooped downstairs to get the chess game he had hidden in his pocket when the police came...

Mokuba tossed and turned in his bed. Slowly, he reached a hand up towards the heavens, remembering the texture of his bunk-bed, how he had been able to touch the ceiling from the top bunk where he slept. The day his parents died he had been sitting in his bed, doing his homework and waiting for the Clang! and " Mokie, I'm home!" that accompanied his brothers arrival. Instead he heard a blank quiet -" Oh, that's right! Seto said he was going to go to Mom's diner after school and show her his gift-" Seto had long known his mothers fondness for little trinkets and fantasy creatures- for Mothers Day he had made her a little glass dragon in shop, spending his entire lunch period there for nearly a month. Then, some time later- he wasn't sure how much- he had heard a pounding at the door. Curious but afraid, he had sneaked down to the living rom and peeked out the window to see a bunch of policemen looking grim and holding his brother by the back of his shirt. His brothers' eyes were glazed, defeated ... Mokuba had never seen his brother look so bleak and lifeless before... " Seto!" Mokuba ran out of the house, running through the officers legs to reach his brother... " Seto, what happened?!" Looking into his brothers eyes, there was only a faint recognition, like a light seen from a long way off... " Big Brother, what happened!?"

The policeman looked at Mokuba with pity in his eyes. " Kid, there was a robbery today at Tom's diner..." Afterwards, Mokuba's eyes glazed over, a horrible feeling rising in his stomach that understood the numbness in Seto's eyes...as tears rose in his...

Seto came up the stairs, a fake smile on his face, the chess set in his hands. In the end, your smile is like my tears. After that day, big brother, your smile, your frown, your tears... are all distant. You've gone somewhere I can't reach.

Oh, I've become so numb.

MaroonSorrow says: What do you think? Should I continue?


End file.
